COTTONWOOD – Quality teachers are “dedicated, caring, and talented.” According to Ben Russel, lead administrator at Verde Christian Academy in Cottonwood, Natalie Rice is a quality teacher.

Russel said that the school’s fifth-year kindergarten teacher “spends much time and energy planning interesting lessons for students.”

“I remember a few weeks back coming in to work early in the morning to get something done,” Russel said. “Who did I find here already preparing for the day – with three kids in tow? Natalie.”

It’s her love of kids that inspired Rice to become an educator in the first place. Once she became a parent, Rice also became involved in foster care.

Though she had earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management, Rice said that “God really showed me in many ways that he wants me working with children and the path to education was laid out right in front of me.”

Russel said that Rice uses “some very effective tools to inspire students and to keep them actively engaged.” Perhaps her greatest tool, the “refreshing gift of optimism.”

“She is always positive with students and shows care and concern,” Russel said. “She welcomes students into her classroom each day with a choice. Would they prefer to give her a high five, fist bump, hug or handshake? Kids get excited to go into her room each day.”

Besides her love of children, Rice said she “love[s] that this job is never boring.”

“You never know what to expect, and you never know where your group discussions will lead to,” Rice said. “I find out the sweetest and funniest things about kids during circle time. I also love the thought of making a difference in a person’s life, I really believe that teaching is a calling, not just a job.”

Verde Valley Newspapers: Explain your teaching style.

Natalie Rice: “I love a student-centered classroom. In all my lessons, I try as best as I can to give students choice of how they want to learn and let them lead our discussions.

“Student centered classrooms are big on collaboration with peers and cooperative learning where students are still learning from me but, also from and with each other. I am also very big on active participation which means that all students are participating and engaged all the time.”

VVN: Do you have a favorite quote?

Rice: “My goal as a kindergarten teacher is to make all my students know they are loved and treasured. I desire for my classroom to be not only creative and fun, but a safe place to learn. I believe that when a teacher creates a climate of love, safety and respect, great learning will follow.”

VVN: If you were not a teacher, what could you see yourself doing?

Rice: “If I were not a teacher, I would be a professional world traveler or vacationer. I would figure out a way to make money from traveling.”

VVN:Tell us something that not too many people know about you.

Rice: “I have a huge passion for missions and helping children in other countries be able to reach their goals. When my children graduate high school I would love to go to third world countries with a mission of helping as many kids as I can.”

— Follow Bill Helm on Twitter @BillHelm42

COTTONWOOD – Verde Christian Academy has decided to take a page from Cottonwood-Oak Creek’s playbook.

For each of the next three school years, Cottonwood’s Christian school will add a grade to its pre-K to 5 population until it is a K-8 school, according to school administrator Ben Russell.

Russel said that though middle school “has been a dream at Verde Christian Academy for a long time,” grades 6 through 8 can be “the most difficult and the most rewarding years for children.”

“It is the time where we question who we are and who we want to become,” he said.

Russel said that “several factors” over the past few years inspired the school that it could expand its curriculum to include middle schoolers.

When C-OC began to offer K-8 curriculum district-wide this year, Russel figured that families “would send students to other schools where students have been together since [kindergarten].”

For the 2019-2020 school year, Verde Christian will add a sixth grade class, followed by a seventh grade class in 2020-2021 and an eighth grade class the following year.

Russel said that he “anticipate[s] being close to full in our sixth grade next year.”

To prepare for the school’s expansion, administration and the school’s fifth graders have “been brainstorming ideas for middle school.”

“They are excited to help us pilot our expansion,” Russel said.

Though the school’s grade 6 through grade 8 offerings will begin each as single classroom, Russel said the school’s plans are to have students will switch between teachers for math, language and science, as well as electives and “separate discipleship classes for boys and for girls.”

“As the school grows, students will be able to participate in interscholastic sports and other extracurricular trips and activities,” Russel said. “We also plan to develop separate multi-age groups within our school called houses.  Houses would provide mentoring opportunities between students and would give a further sense of community and belonging at VCA.”

Verde Christian Academy is located at 102 S. Willard St. in Cottonwood. For more information, call 928-634-8113.

— Follow Bill Helm on Twitter @BillHelm42

COTTONWOOD – A few years back, Verde Christian Academy resolved itself to create what Ben Russel called a “better product for our kids.”

Thanks to First Things First’s Quality First program, the preschool program at Verde Christian Academy has become a five-star program.

Before the school’s winter break, a representative from Quality First visited the Cottonwood Christian school to evaluate the program’s effectiveness.

The result, a five-star rating, from the entity that “supports early education,” said Russel, Verde’s Christian’s lead administrator.

“They came to campus and looked at the interactions in the classroom, the environment of the play areas and the open areas, looked at our files,” Russel said. “They follow a rating scale to determine what level we’re at.”

Quality First measures criteria such as: Health and safety practices that promote children’s basic wellbeing; Staff qualifications, including experience working with infants, toddlers and preschoolers as well as training or college coursework in early childhood development and education; Teacher-child interactions that are positive, consistent and nurture healthy development and learning; Learning environments, including age-appropriate books, toys and learning materials that promote emotional, social, language and cognitive development; Lessons that follow state requirements or recommendations for infants, toddlers and preschoolers; Group sizes that give young children the individual attention they need; and Child assessment and parent communication that keeps families regularly informed of their child’s development.

Also important, that the Quality First representatives watched as teachers interact with students, as they asked “open ended questions,” Russel said.

The five-star rating actually came after Verde Christian’s preschool became an accredited program, Russel said.

Moving forward, Russel said that Verde Christian should receive “more grant funding as a result of the rating.”

— Follow Bill Helm on Twitter @BillHelm42

COTTONWOOD – More often than not, folks know Adopt-a-Family as the program that helps families with money for food and presents each year at Christmas.

But Betty Midkiff’s fifth grade class at Verde Christian Academy recently gave to a local family something even more meaningful.

Two brothers – former students at the Christian school in Cottonwood – have leukemia. So Midkiff talked to her students about the meaning of Christmas, and they raised $722 to help 15-year-old Brady and 17-year-old Aidan Skoch fight the disease.

Sophomore Brady Skoch has had to leave classes at Mingus Union High School to go to Washington D.C. with his mother for treatment.

Russel said that Brady is currently entering his second round of cancer treatments and that “this round will be difficult.”

Aiden, also attending Mingus Union, is a junior and recently performed in the school play “A Christmas Carol.”

“After hearing of the Skoch family’s struggle, they decided to get involved,” said Ben Russel, lead administrator at Verde Christian Academy. “Mrs. Midkiff encouraged them not only to ask their families to assist, but to ask others to get involved, and to do odd jobs to raise funds themselves as well.”

In addition to the money the children raised, the school donated another $300, which Russel said allowed the children to give Kevin Skoch a $1,022 check.

“Mr. Skoch grabbed for the tissues as he listened to the students telling their stories,” Russel said. “He then shared how grateful his family is to the class. It was a powerful scene, watching the students as they listened to Skoch tell his story. This Christmas will be a memorable one for those involved.”

The Skoch family has a GoFundMe page as they raise money for medical expenses, www.gofundme.com/skochboys.

COTTONWOOD – Jack of all trades, master of none. Nobody at Verde Christian Academy would say this about Rhonda Johnson.

As the school’s assistant preschool director, technology director and librarian, Johnson wears “a lot of hats and wears them all well,” said Ben Russell, the school’s lead administrator.

“Mrs. Johnson’s skills vary from teaching and loving on preschoolers, to teaching technology class and managing the library,” Russell said. “These myriad responsibilities necessitate a lot of skills and talents on her part.”

To handle a variety of tasks at the proverbial drop of a hat, it helps that Johnson is “always calm and has a positive outlook,” Russell said.

“She is a passionate gift-giver and often showers staff with blessings and gifts,” Russell said. “She brings a great spirit to our staff, spreading cheer like Arizona sunshine.”

In her fifth year at Verde Christian Academy, her eighth year as an educator, Johnson did not know until college that she wanted to teach.

“In high school I told everyone that I just wanted to be a good mom,” Johnson said. “When I went to college, I went into Elementary Education. Now part of my teaching is the littlest (preschool) and feel like I am now able to be a mama to my littles, as I call them.”

What Johnson likes most about her work is the “variety of subjects and students that I get to teach and reach.”

TEACHING STYLE

Johnson said that her teaching style is “inquiry based.”

“In preschool, I allow my students to do centers that are open to them using a variety of developmentally appropriate items and letting them discover how to use them,” Johnson said. “This open center time is over half of their time in preschool each day and also leads to differentiated instruction, play-based learning, and kinesthetic learning. These are all vital parts of a child’s learning and development.”

NOTABLE

“In the area of education, this public award of educator of the week would be my first notable recognition.”

QUOTABLE

“We are not born with empathy. We have to be taught it.”

DID YOU KNOW?

Johnson is a third-generation teacher. Her mother and grandmother were teachers.